ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 3) – The plan that
Coughlin finished runner-up to Danny Rowe in the finals, but more importantly the car and team functioned near flawlessly in the effort.
“These guys have been thrashing like mad to get the car to go straight on all four wheels,” Coughlin said. “We were able to keep it under control and manage the power today. They gave me the best car they could give me.
“This is the way I envisioned we’d start the season off, but it’s just taken a little while to get to where we’re at. I couldn’t be happier with this effort.”
In the final, the JEGS.com Camaro was a little too anxious to get off the line, and Coughlin red-lit by -.113 seconds. Rowe’s pass was a 5.910-second lap at 239.57 mph. After seeing that Rowe cut a dismal .164-second light himself, Coughlin was left thinking what could have been.
“Everything went as planned in the final round, it was just time to go in my head, I guess,” Coughlin said. “I looked at Danny’s reaction time, I was like, ‘Wow we could have ran like 6.10 and still won.’ But it’s over and we left before he was late. That may have thrown him off.”
After beating championship contender Leah Pruett on a holeshot Saturday night, Coughlin got a free pass to the semis after quarterfinals opponent Mike Janis wasn’t able to answer the call to race. Then the JEGS car beat Kenny Lang in the semis to set up the showdown with Rowe.
“We had a nice break in the second round,” Coughlin said. “I don’t know what happened to Mike’s car, but it was nice to get that break. Our car still isn’t 100 percent happy, and everybody knows we’ve got a long way to go.
“We had good reaction times until the final and just overall we made really good runs. I’m real excited about the direction we’re headed.”
With the
“We’ve beat some tough people this weekend,” he said. “We made a nice gain in points, cracking the Top 10. We’re all looking forward to the next race already.”
Up next for the Team JEGS team is the June 15-17 Ford Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals from Bristol Dragway in
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